Hanoi's anti-epidemic path
09:41
Hanoi’s people and businesses will continue to live
under social distancing because that is the "best way to live" with
the virus when the vaccination rate is low to effectively contain the
disease.
When Hanoi started a mass Covid-19
testing campaign with up to 3.3 million samples, it was said that the
campaign was quite expensive and could increase the risk of infection,
repeating the footsteps of Ho Chi Minh City, and that it would be unable to
screen all infection cases in the community.
In some
aspects, the observations show the vulnerabilities that the testing campaign
can fall into. However, the widespread testing campaign is necessary and
irreversible. Worthy campaign The
development of covid-19 in Hanoi at present is different from that in Ho Chi
Minh City two months ago. Hanoi is recording an average of 60-80 new cases
per day, with many cases in the community and unknown sources of infection.
To date, the capital city has had nearly 2,000 positive cases, most of them
in the community. In this
situation, Hanoi’s Party Secretary Dinh Tien Dung said: "Without more
drastic measures, Hanoi will continue to be at risk of epidemic outbreaks.
The organization of large-scale testing is to actively find and thoroughly
isolate F0 cases, to prevent the epidemic from spreading." After
collecting more than 200,000 samples in high-risk areas, only 17 samples were
positive for SARS-CoV-2, a very small percentage. Someone may
question that the cost of extensive testing is huge but only a several
infection cases are detected, so is it worthy? Yes, it is
worthy, and the small positive rate detected is encouraging in the sense that
the epidemic in the capital city is still under control. We cannot be
subjective with the Delta variant that is toppling the whole world. Hanoians
and local businesses have been under social distancing for nearly a month.
People's livelihoods and business activities have been seriously affected. Hanoi’s
Party Secretary Dung explained: "At this time, social distancing is the
most important measure to quell outbreaks, protect people's health and
safety." Hanoi has
applied social distancing under Directives 15 and 16 very early and the whole
city has strictly obeyed these measures to protect themselves while waiting
for vaccines. According to
the Covid-19 Immunization Portal, the Ministry of Health said that it
allocated 2,944,710 vaccine doses to Hanoi, and the city administered
1,829,641 doses. Thus, the supply of vaccines to the capital city is quite
abundant because only about 19 million doses of vaccines had arrived in
Vietnam as of August 10. However, the
reality is far different. According to
Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Health Vu Cao Cuong, the city
received 1,635,500 vaccine doses and by August 11, and Hanoi administered
more than 1 million doses, with over 12% of the population vaccinated. This is the
first time the volume of vaccines for Hanoi was officially announced, and the
number is far different from the Ministry of Health's data of 2,944,710
doses. The figure falls short of the population of more than 8 million people
of the capital city, not to mention millions of migrants. The best way
to live with the virus when vaccine coverage is low Without vaccines, what can Hanoi do? Hanoi has to
quickly implement large-scale testing to find F0 cases. This is very
necessary. Hanoi has
established 55 command posts at all levels, which are on duty 24/7, to direct
and handle urgent situations in epidemic prevention and control. The city has
also set up 23 checkpoints at gateways and 3,129 checkpoints at alleys,
hamlets, wards and communes to control and ensure the implementation of
social distancing. As many as 4,559 community Covid-19 groups, with 29,385
teams (each team has 3-4 members) participate in epidemic prevention and
control at the grassroots level. And there
are many other works with the aim of best preparing for the wave that is on
the horizon. Prof. Ben
Marais, Deputy Director of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious and
Biosafety Research, University of Sydney, said at a recent webinar "The
way out of Covid-19: Lessons from Australia and Vietnam" that it would
rather impose lockdown and social distancing early to bring the number of
infection cases to zero, and then reopen later. "The
best way to live with the virus, when vaccine coverage is low, is to live
without any infection cases," he said. Prof. Marais
said that Australia used to pursue a policy of "containment" of
Covid-19, which means "tolerating" infections in the community to
some extent, so as not to have great socio-economic impacts. But after the
past 18 months and especially the expansion of the Delta variant, Australia
has realized that this policy is not optimal in terms of costs. That is why
the number of infection cases in Australia at present is much smaller than in
previous outbreaks, about 200 cases/day (less than half of the number in June
last year), but most Australians are under social distancing. Perhaps
Hanoi is approaching it from that angle, trying to “separate F0 cases” from
the community. Hanoi’s
people and businesses will continue to live under social distancing because
that is the "best way to live" with the virus when the vaccination
rate is low to effectively contain the disease. Working with
the capital last week, State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Hanoi had
made a very timely decision on social distancing to avoid the risk of a
health and socio-economic crisis. "The
guidance of the Party Central Committee and the Politburo is to prioritize
and quickly turn the capital into a safe and solid area from which to connect
and provide aid to other localities," the President said. That is a
compliment not only for Hanoi leaders, but also for local people and
businesses. But Hanoi also needs vaccines as it cannot impose social
distancing forever. VNN |
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét